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Cage 32
Alice Carey Traver Libby Kennedy
Papers, 1903-1959

The papers of Alice Carey Traver Libby Kennedy were a bequest to the Washington State University Library from the estate of Alice Kennedy in 1959. Mrs. Kennedy's sister, Edith G. Traver, assisted in arranging for the transfer of the papers and added some of her own material. Processed by Lorraine Burchfiel, June-July, 1972

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

Miss Alice Traver, born in 1876 in Olympia, Washington of pioneer parents, Miles E. (d. 1902) and Stella W. Traver (d. 1914), was educated in Spokane and at the Cheney Normal School. Between 1908 and 1912 she was employed by the Western Union office in Spokane and following that she worked for the city as a labor agent in what became the Women's Free Employment Bureau until 1919. In 1917 she became the second wife of Dr. Isaac Chase Libby (1852-1923) a pioneer Spokane educator. Dr. Libby died in 1923 and following his death Mrs. Libby became a housemother at the Montana School for the Deaf and Dumb. She later married James C. Kennedy and died in Spokane in 1959.

Acutely conscious of her pioneer heritage, Mrs. Kennedy began the compilation of scrapbooks and clipping files which document much of the history of the Inland Empire through the Spokane newspapers. These clippings comprise the largest bulk of this collection. In addition there is a small file of personal and family correspondence, clippings, postcards, brochures, periodicals and other papers.

Mrs. Kennedy's sister, Miss Edith G. Traver (born 1881), a Baptist missionary in China for thirty years preceding World War II, also retained some material from her personal experiences in China. In addition, she later donated the diaries of her father, Miles E. Traver, to the library in another accession.

Throughout her life Mrs. Kennedy contributed many pamphlets, books and other material on the history of the Pacific Northwest to the Washington State University Library and to the Eastern Washington State Historical Society.

                                                                                                      CONTAINERS
Series 1: Clipping file, 1903-1959                                                                       1-5
  Five containers of material arranged alphabetically under several broad subject headings 
  covering many aspects of Spokane and Inland history and development: Biographies and 
  reminiscences, Churches and missions, Cities and towns, Economics and business, Education, Indians
  and Indian wars, Historic sites, Pacific Northwest history, Public works, Transportation.
Series 2: Scrapbooks, 1908-1919                                                                           5
  Three scrapbooks of clippings and mementoes of Mrs. Kennedy's employment with Western Union and the
  Women's Free Employment Bureau.
Series 3: Photographs, 1903-1940                                                                          6
  Approximately 75 negatives and photoprints of family and friends, Spokane and the Inland Empire.
Series 4: Correspondence and other papers of Alice Kennedy and Edith Traver, 1908-1958                    6
  Approximately 600 items.
Series 5: Postcards, 1909-1954                                                                            6
  Approximately 300 scenic and photographic postcards, many with correspondence of friends and family.

CONTAINER LIST